Life and thoughts of Mark Lau Tin Wai

Animal Abuse

Abusing animals

We believe that animals are living creatures which like humans, are able to feel pain, hunger and thirst. We should not inflict any suffering upon our fellow creatures just because they can’t speak. ~SPCA

I am not a really warm person. Maybe it’s because I am a math geek, but I would say it is a good advantage, my teacher said an example, ‘There are lots of people saying that girl in the film don’t have an ambition because her dream is be a kindergarten teacher. However, we should ask, why? Can you teacher a child what 1,2,3,4 is? Telling them what is a Peano’s Axiom( a set axiom describing natural numbers)?’ I have recently written a lot of blog post arguing why, I think it illustrate my point. And this blog post have no exception, concerning abusing animals.

Mentioned in the opening quote, SPCA thinks we shouldn’t harm our animals/pets intentionally, because they suffer pain. I need to highlight the point is, THIS BLOG POST DIDN’T ENCOURAGE YOU TO ABUSE ANIMALS! Also in Hong Kong, abusing animals is illegal, and I would normally think, you wouldn’t abuse animals because you are bored, right?

Absolute Right

Back to the point, My teacher once taught an interesting story: In ancient China, we treat cows valuable because they helped us to farm, but in old Hong Kong, we ate the meat of dogs and we didn’t feel guilty. And now, I think eating the meat of dog is disgusting! This story is not surprising because culture defines us.

Are there absolute right? Or in other words, how to judge what is right? Culture is really a key judgement. However, I have struggled it on a long time, Zhangzi said there are no absolute right dao(a path which is right). At last my conclusion is, let culture defines us, and I think that’s fine, but we should keep an eye of it.

Okay, Cruelty to animals, is right or wrong. We make progress from weaker statement: We can use animals, that means, we have the right to kill animals for food. I would say trivial as the contrapositive : You have no right killing animals, you can’t kill them simply for food. Then we all be vegetarian. And then, can we kill plant because simply for food, I think same applies. And, we all died, ultimate goal, great.

And then we move to the statement: Should we inflict any suffering upon our fellow creatures? Of course, we shouldn’t. Notice the ‘shouldn’t’ word, I mean it is we don’t recommend you to abuse animals. It’s because we normally didn’t gain any happiness from abusing. It’s like abusing a classmate. The point is, should we judge a people bad because he inflict any suffering upon our fellow creatures? I don’t think you have any concrete evidence.

Sympathy

Ask yourself, why you think abusing an animal is wrong, the answer is the topic: sympathy. You feels guilty when someone abuse your pets. Everyone said Dog is our friend. Any evidence?, you probably heard dog can be a knife kill other people. In other words, dog is our tool. Just think, Do you feel sympathy when your lover don’t accept your love request? So you judge him wrong them,, No! I am sorry that you won’t have a law that justify your lover must accept your request, simply just because they hurt you( and you would very sad, I am sure). And the other side, I simply said it is his property: Pets are their own private property, he can do everything they want.

You wouldn’t be satisfied, right? You would said if my explanation is true, then why we wouldn’t have a slave? Like in ancient Egypt? The big answer is given above, Cultural issues. I am not thinking you can have slaves, but this problem actually about the equality right.

Equality right is you really should concern, does a pig should share their right to you? should a criminal share their own right? Should a female share their right to males, should a slave share their own right to you? The answer actually answered by culture. In here, I would share some opinions to you. For a christian, all are yes. Up to now, all have their own right except pigs, criminal and slave. It’s a really rising up eyebrows question. And I would point out(I thought it because I have seen Minecraft Story Mode Episode 7) It is argued between PAMA(a computer) and it’s creator Harper(A scientist):

Should we maximizes our efficiency no matter what outcomes?

The computer in that game control the people in the world because he think it can maximize the efficiency of the world, and you wouldn’t think it’s true, because our human don’t want to be control, but the Harper evidence is quite concrete: I asked you to help them, not use them! That’s why computer is wrong. ( I admit it a really hard question.)

Can we say abusing your pet is right because it maximizes our happiness? It’s quite a good reason because your goal is to help human, not help animals (It’s like helping the environment because we are helping our own self). So I treat it is my reason. I admit it is immoral, and I do not recommend you to abuse animals. Notice Harper’s answer not applies, because we are not helping animals but instead we help our own self.

It’s explain a lot things, slaves are not permitted, because we are helping humans… How about criminals? Do they share it own right? It’s false because they failed our laws (although I admit, they are not really good, or I would say laws don’t exist in my own moral, peace happy world), the government thinks it maximizes the peace of the society, hence it applies.

Is abusing your pet right? It’s need a long time to answer, or simply said, we left culture to answer that, if that’s the case, you can comfort yourself because SPCA is winning the race.